Horsetooth Rock

Horestooth Rock is a monolithic geological formation that can be seen from nearly everywhere in Fort Collins.  To think I lived in Fort Collins for 17 years before I ever set foot on top of it seems crazy now.  I wasn't always a trail runner though (or even a road lover for that matter) but I was somewhat active and liked to hike when I first moved to Colorado in 1992.  

 Horsetooth rock on a winter day from Towers Trail and Herrington.

I first ventured to the top of "the rock" a year and a half ago.  Up until last summer I still went there infrequently, mostly because there was a large ΔElevation between the trailhead and the rock.  Well there still is, but I've come to think differently about hills.  They make me a better runner, even if they sometimes suck on the way up.  Really, once I accepted that I may have to slow if not walk a bit (and not count that a failure) the satisfaction from sitting atop a peak and soaking in the panoramic views softens all the work that goes into getting up.  Plus running downhill is a lot of fun.

Last Sunday I ran up to the top of Horsetooth Rock, choosing it over more miles on flatter trails to fill the window I had to run in.  As I left the parking lot at Horsetooth Mountain Park it was overcast and there was fog and low hanging clouds everywhere.  As I headed up the trails the higher I got the more often I'd see brief windows of sunshine to the west, though clouds and running through fog were the norm.  When I reached the plateau at the base of the rock I got a view to the west and my jaw dropped.  It was mostly sunny to the west with small clouds of fog dotted here and there throughout the valley.  These fog banks were literally disappearing before my eyes.  I climbed the rock and sat and watched for 10 or 15 minutes, watching cloud after cloud wisp away up the thermal updrafts along the sides of the valleys.  It was one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time.  It's Wednesday night and I'm still thinking about it, it was that cool.  I wish I had some pictures to share, but I left my camera in the car figuring the overcast day would not be conducive to good pictures. Sometimes the mind holds better pictures than the camera anyway --  though they are tougher to share without 1000 words!

I'm looking forward to being back atop Horsetooth Rock this coming Saturday as I run in Alex's March Madness Run.

Towers Day!

So I've been jazzed all day. Why? Because it's Tower's time trial day! What is Towers Rd? It's a 3.45 mile primitive road with 1700 feet of vertical gain. Once a fortnight Nick rounds up the masses and somehow convinces us it would be fun to run up this hill as hard as we can, hoping to earn that elusive and rewarding metallic taste in your mouth that comes with a worthy effort. With a staggered/handicapped start everyone (not sandbagging) has the same chance at being King or Queen of the hill, the first one up. It's the highlight of my week. Of my two weeks actually. Seriously.

Yeah, that probably leaves me a few standard deviations outside the population norm. But in my "pain community" I'm a normal guy. Pain community is a term I discovered in a Runner's World article, linked above, that discusses why we push ourselves to further and further limits, why we endure and in fact embrace the suffering involved in doing something like running hard up a big hill. I'm glad to have the Fort Collins Trail Runners as my pain community, they've certainly helped me improve as a trail runner and inspired me to undertakes things I never would have dreamed possible.

Thur night update: 33 runners tackled the hill today. The spring weather not only had us in jovial moods, but brought out the crowd too. I had a good effort, a minute off 2 weeks ago, all lost in the first mile after the turn. Early I had tight Achilles slowing me down. They settled down after to my attempts to stretch them while walking the steeps or maybe I just out-stubborned them.

Number Nine ... Number Nine ... Number Nine ...

So I'm seeing a trend in recent short race results. 8:25 is a popular pace. That's what I ran for the Tortoise & Hare 12K last weekend. It's what I ran for the Tortoise & Hare 8K on Superbowl Sunday. And I ran 8:23 paces the previous 2 races, a 4M and a 10K. The other handful of short races I ran in 2010 (all the way back to an 8:31 pace in the Resolution Run in Dec 2009) have all been in a tight window of about 10 seconds a mile. I suppose there are several ways to interpret this. Not getting any better ... Not getting any worse ... Pace not dropping off with distance ... best I can hope for doing so little speedwork ... But I've decided to interpret it as 8:25 is just my road pace. I'd be pretty happy with a 6.5 minute PB at the Horsetooth Half. ;-)

Busted

So two of my fellow Fort Collins Trail Runners have mentioned noticing my blog, both kindly left out noticing it hasn't been updated since last May. I think of things to write here often but often I either forget them by the time I get to the computer or take the simple quick hitter approach and get the gist of the thought out in a one line facebook post instead. For archival purposes, especially since I am never good at keeping written running log, I should post more here.

I've had a productive winter training for last month's Moab Red Hot 55K. It is scheduled at a perfect time to avoid winter slacking and has left me with a base necessary to ramp up to my first 50M race at Big Horn in June. Maybe there will be more posts to come. Or maybe I should just post links to the pages of my trail running buddies who blog more consistently than I ... ;-)

Reader's Digest condensed version of the past year

So my last meaningful post was just after the 2009 Colorado Marathon last May. The 2010 Colorado Marathon was today, so I guess it's been a year ... What's happened since then? The quick strokes are below, I hope to expand more on things in future posts, but given past performance ...

• I completed my first triathlon in June, the 2009 Loveland Lake to Lake Triathlon (1.5K swim, 30 mile bike, 10K run). I had a great time and a whole bunch of things go wrong.
  
• After a year of intimidated lurking I finally went out and ran with the Fort Collins Trail Runners. Why did I wait so long? My trail running has blossomed since then.
• I climbed two 14'ers last summer, Kit Carson Peak and Mount of the Holy Cross. Both were big days but Kit Carson was especially epic.
  
• I ran the Blue Sky Marathon in October, posting my first DNF, at mile 22. Definitely a story for another post.
  

• I spent the better part of the winter, Oct-Jan, fighting through hip/ITB injuries and pain. I became well acquainted with the foam roller, stretching, hip exercises, pain, and frustration.
  
• I've signed up and started training for my first ultra, the Devil's Lake Dances With Dirt 50K on 10 July in my home state of Wisconsin. Training is going well I think. My long run is up to 22 miles, all on the trail. I am 9 weeks out and my upcoming training includes two 24 and two 26 mile long runs.
  
• I am obviously not in love with swimming, I haven't been in the water since the triathlon last June. My cycling has fallen off quite a bit too. I enjoy the cycling but have been running 5 days a week.
  

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